CAGED System Soloing Exercise
If you’ve been a reader of this site for any length of time, you know I’m a huge advocate of the CAGED system. It’s so valuable for learning guitar and it makes navigating the fretboard so much easier. For that reason, I’ve put a lot of time into putting all of the pieces of the CAGED system together. In this lesson, we’re going to go through one of my favorite CAGED system soloing exercises that helps you map the CAGED system to the fretboard in a fun and musical way.
CAGED Chord Progression
To start, we’re going to come up with a chord progression to following using the CAGED chord shapes. This will help make your practice more musical rather than randomly picking chords to play from.
If you’re not familiar with the CAGED system, I highly recommend my book, Guitar Essentials: Foundational Fretboard Navigation, which goes in depth on building the relationships between triads, chord shapes, arpeggios, and scales.
The chord progression we’re going to use is a i – v – iv – i minor progression in G minor, which gives us the following chords: G minor, D minor and C minor.
With our chord progression in hand, let’s choose the chord shapes we’re going to work from. We’re going to start with the E minor shape for the G minor chord and A minor shape for the D minor and C minor chords.
Connect the CAGED Chord and Pentatonic Shapes
Now that we have the chord shapes we’re going to be working from, let’s map those to the related pentatonic scale for each shape. We’ll use these pentatonic scales to create the lead lines as we move through the chord progression.
Gm Chord & Pentatonic Scale
Dm Chord & Pentatonic Scale
Cm Chord & Pentatonic Scale
Pentatonic Licks Out of the CAGED Chords
Now that we have our chords and pentatonic scales mapped out, we can create licks from each of the chords in the progression. For this, start by strumming the chord. Behind the chord, use the pentatonic scale to create lead lines from the same position. Let’s take a look at some examples.
G Minor Chord and Lick
D Minor Chord and Lick
C Minor Chord and Lick
Keep going through this process and explore new lick ideas for each chord. The lead lines don’t have to be anything extravagant, we’re just building relationships between the scales and chord shapes.
Over time this gets embedded into your muscle memory and you’ll have instant access to these licks. This is particularly valuable when you want to embellish a chord progression with some lead playing.
Apply to All CAGED Chord Shapes
To get the most out of this exercise, apply it to all CAGED shapes for both major and minor chords. Over time the relationships between the chords, arpeggios, and pentatonic scales will flow naturally. Not only will you learn the CAGED system inside and out, this exercise will pay huge dividends when it comes to playing over chord progressions.
Practice with a Backing Track
This exercise is effective on its own, but it’s even more valuable when applied in a musical setting. You can use the backing track below, which was created specifically for this lesson. View all of the AGT backing tracks for more options.
Wrap Up
This CAGED soloing exercise is one of my all-time favorites and has been really effective for helping me put it all together in a musical context. Building these connections all across the fretboard empowers your playing. It allows you to get more out of any given position on the guitar without having to resort to the same comfortable chord/scale shapes.
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